LOS ANGELES - Derrick Williams caught the ball a foot in front of the Oregon State bench.
"Shoot it!" one Beavers player shouted from his seat. Another said the same.
Williams pulled up, made his third straight three-pointer of the game and paused just a second to stare back at the bench of Thursday's Pac-10 tournament quarterfinal opponent.
"Whenever somebody talks to me, I do a little talking, too," Williams said, smiling, after the Wildcats defeated the Beavers 78-69 at Staples Center.
Forward Solomon Hill said it best.
"If you tell him to shoot it, you gotta live with it," Hill said.
Williams took six three-point shots Thursday and made five. His 22 points led the Wildcats, and his first three-pointer of the second half capped a 9-0 run that both head coaches cited as the game's turning point.
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Along the way, Williams moved closer to a strange, but remarkable, feat.
He could become the greatest three-point shooter in NCAA history by one statistical analysis.
Williams has made 34 of 54 three-point attempts, a 62.9 percent clip.
He is percentage points away from the NCAA's all-time record - but needs to reach 50 made three-pointers to qualify.
Holy Cross' Glenn Tropf made 52 of 82 shots in 1988, setting the NCAA mark at 63.4 percent.
A potential three-point-shooting record was news to the sophomore from La Mirada, Calif.
"I'm not going to be just going out there trying to get the record and shooting 35 threes a game," he said. "But if I make my first couple, if I'm open, that's a good shot for my team."
UA legend Steve Kerr holds the record for best percentage when making at least 100 shots. In 1988 - the same season as Tropf's run - Kerr made 114 of 199 treys, good for 57.3 percent.
The odds of Williams reaching 50 made treys are long.
He would need to make 16 more - and the Wildcats, even in the most deliriously optimistic of scenarios, have eight games to play.
Williams should try a number of treys today in the Pac-10 tournament semifinal against USC. The Trojans will guard him with one of their 6-foot-10-inch starters, either Alex Stepheson or Nikola Vucevic.
"That's what I look forward to doing in the next couple games - if they leave me open. Especially with bigger guys, I'm going to shoot it, and I'm going to make it," Williams said. "I just have to have confidence."
The Pac-10 Player of the Year is certainly more dangerous near the basket than away from it. But the gap is closing.
"I think people are kinda thinking it's luck," guard MoMo Jones said. "He's really worked on it.
"It's just a natural shot he takes now."
Williams isn't one of the team's best shooters in practice. Jones figures that it's because, in scrimmages, the Wildcats have a good scouting report.
Unlike some Pac-10 teams, they don't dare Williams to shoot a trey.
"With him shooting the way he shoots, it opens a lot up for us," said Jones, who scored 13 points.
"Sometimes it's kinda like, 'Wow, did he really just hit that?'
"But for the most part, it's just a shot we've seen him take throughout the summer and throughout the year."
More amazing for Williams is that the three-point line was moved back one foot to 20 feet 9 inches, starting in 2008-09.
"He takes them in transition; he takes them when he's open," Hill said. "When he's not running to the rim, he'll stop and pop for three."
Just ask the Beavers.
Williams told them, of course, after glaring at the bench.
"I'm just going to keep shooting if I'm open," Williams said.
